MBAs making lives more difficult since....forever.

“A leaner work force will create a more flexible and competitive Canada Post,” the post office announced in the summary of a five-point plan. “Canada Post has a mandate to fund its operations with revenues from the sale of its products and services, rather than become a burden on taxpayers.”

That's one of the arguments used by those who want to do away with the US Post Office as well. My question is what burden? Keeping citizens connected is an essential service that should be retained by the top level government. Certainly it should make a best effort to pay for itself but when its normal business practices are disrupted by technological changes, it should invest in whatever upgrades are needed to serve its primary function of keeping us, all of us, connected, even if they operate in the red for a few years. It is what a smart private enterprise would do. 

There was a brief mention -- one sentence -- of that function in the article:

“The whole notion of a universal correspondence service is a pretty important one,” he said. “It’s quite a comedown for a national postal system.” 

Borrowing from Brad DeLong's lexicon: Why, O, why do we not have a better press corp?

Does anyone have anything delivered by post these days besides junk mail?

And while a PO Box used to be kind of a pain, these days it could work like an ATM - insert your electronic i.d., out slide your letters - no need for big lines. Set up your box at the local strip mall, and you've done away with personal door-to-door delivery, the hugest unnecessary cost.